March 8, 2006

Brison Ship Springs a Leak…Scotty is on the Brink!

Scott Brison told me four weeks ago, before the mono (I think in pre- and post-mono these days, its awful), that he was the right man to lead the Liberal Party. He told me in English, because had he tried in French I’m sure it would have taken a lot longer and chances are it wouldn’t have made sense anyway. I think I’ve bitched enough about bilingualism, you all get that message, (if you don’t speak French, you can run, but don’t expect anybody with half a brain to think you’ll win, unless you pay them, and I’m not going THERE again.)

My trusted source at Dalhousie (Fuddle Duddle has them everywhere folks) reported back to me Monday, fully recovered from the hangover. I asked him for the lowdown and if your name is Scotty-B, things aren’t looking up. They were in Nova Scotia, Scott’s backyard, surely there wouldn’t that much competition. WRONG!

Apparently, one of the more interesting attractions there this weekend was Belinda (no comment, I’ve said enough) Stronach (for the glitz and glamour, nobody really flocked to the Magna for her brilliant ideas, I’ll get back to you guy when she comes up with some)

Ken Dryden grabbed the headlines saying it was good that the Liberal Party lost. I have said this for a while. I have a confession. I was saying this before the election. Forgive me for I have adopted Warren Kinsella's thinking. But Kenny is right, we had to lose. To me, we became everything to everyone, and now we have to focus on what becoming a Liberal is. I have 6 reasons to support the Goalie, one more than the Boston Bruins, much to the chagrin of my cousins Sergio, Joe and Julie (HAHA BURN!)

Another surprise apparently was Harvard Professor Michael Ignatieff. According to my friend his hospitality suite was “hopping”. (I don’t know, I don’t speak Haligonian) You couldn’t breathe cuz they were so full, people lining up to shake Ignatieff’s hand. My friend met the professor, he said he was impressed with his ideas (Note to La Magna, Talking Points are not considered ideas), and was surprised how good his French was. Not bad for the professor, considering he was in Scott Brison’s backyard.

And after that unmitigated disaster, the Brison ship springs a leak, earning Scott the new nickname, Leaky. So Leaky sends an email speculating about a decision that had been discussed but not completely at the Cabinet Table, and could cause markets to go into frenzy, certainly benefiting Scott’s friends at CIBC. Would Scott be making such a statement had he not been at the Cabinet Table? Nope!

Well, that’s divulging Cabinet secrets. That’s not all, telling his banker friend he would be happy is basically telling him the outcome of the decision, which amounts to insider trading. Good job Leaky! Do the Liberal Party a favor and get out of this race before we have to explain to the Canadian population why our leadership candidates are under RCMP investigation. You’ve now become a liability. Liabilities don’t win leadership races.

Harper and his New Tories are doing a wonderful job of slow-motion implosion on the ethics side, which Harper rode to victory on.

The next leader of the LPC should not have any ethics-related baggage which Harper can campaign against.

Brison will make a good target for the New Tories who successfully imported the US neocon “framing” tactic during the recent election. They framed the election as a rejection of corruption, with Harper being Mr Clean. And they won on that framing. Imagine how Harper would frame Brison …. The New Tories would hang two millstones around his neck: either he was involved in tipping a banker off about the income trust change, or he was incredibly incompetent for a senior cabinet minister in exchanging those kinds of emails with a banker. In both instances Harper will claim that it is “business as usual” with a Liberal Party which clearly has not learned anything from the spanking administered to it by the voters. Either tag probably will be enough for Harper to resurrect his Mr Clean image, and move on to a majority government.

Stronach has the weakness that she takes away from the LPC the ability to hammer Mr Clean on his MP-switcheroo tactics and arrogance in claiming imperial powers as prime minister. She also is a relative newcomer to the LPC and open to claims of Liberal-of-convenience. So she, too, is highly vulnerable to New Tory framing.

Get real for another reason: the way Harper is carrying on, another election could come well before the LPC have chosen a new leader. In that case, guess who will choose the leader he wishes to run against? You got it – Mr Clean. Imagine the framing opportunities if he can go through a list with Brison and Stronach on it and hammer away at them as his chosen targets! Be handing him a majority government on a platter.

Politics is about power, and about reality, as much as about idealism. It is foolish to start off the next campaign (against a US-style perpetual campaigning party such as the New Tories now are) by making yourself vulnerable.

Time to move on to other candidates, who come to the table with less baggage or no baggage. The next Liberal leader should be the Mr or Ms Clean, in contrast to a tarnished Harper.

Time for Brison and Stronach to gracefully exit from the leadership contest.

Ralph Goodale stood in the foyer of the House of Commons following QP on the the day in question, 3 hours BEFORE Brison sent his email, and said that he would provide direction on a proposed solution to the income trust dilemma before the the government was defeated the coming Monday. Experts immediately characterized it as a change in timing to pave the way for a politically popular divident tax cut.

Goodale said he "wanted to provide the greatest amount of certainty that's possible" for income trust investors before the election campaign began.

Now this was said in a scrum in front of the entire Ottawa press gallery following QP.

Subsequently Brison said to someone "I think you will be happier soon, this week probably."

Whose comments provided the greater amount of info......Goodale or Brison?

Those who don't like Brison better find a better reason than this to not like him. He is in the clear!Anyone with income trust investmemts would be happy that the gov't was just going to make a decision to bring certainty to the market, rather than have to wait until the previously stated Goodale deadline of Dec 31 for a gov't decision.

It's pretty clear that a lot of the key Martin organizers are easily some of the stupidest people in Canadian politics. People like David Brodie spend 10 years helping Paul to become a historical footnote like Turner or Tupper and now with their great political minds they latch onto another born loser in Scott Brison only to see that blow up in their faces.

Maybe they really should get out of politics and let people that know what they are doing run things for a while.

That also goes to all the Martinites like Reg Alcock that think Belinda stands a chance to ever be Prime Minister.

Careful guys, I never said he should leave the party. I simply said I do not want to explain to Canadians why one of our candidates is under RCMP investigation.

Did Scott divulge something that he would have had no knowledge of if he was not a member of Cabinet? The answer is yes. This is not a cheap leadership stunt guys. All I said was it would be a bad way to say we are rebuilding the party when we start with the shadow of yet another RCMP investigation. I challenge anyone to dispute that point.